I'm inspired by Brenda's list to start a "Julie's assumed ethnicities list" of my very own.
What is this? People keep asking me "Are you from ___?" Being dark-haired and fairly dark skinned for a caucasian, these are most often countries where the women are dark-haired, so I get asked if I'm from Italy, Spain, or the middle-East a lot, while no one has ever asked me if I'm from Switzerland.
Most recently, I was mistaken for an italian woman. In San Francisco, Nikita, Kevin, Lenore, Tal, Russell and I had dinner at the Steps of Rome, an italian restaurant in SF's little Italy. He spoke to Kevin and Nikita in English, then turned to me and started speaking Italian, of which I understood not a word. I made a feeble attempt at replying in some combination of French and bad Portuguese, but was unsuccessful.
Other ethnicities that people attribute to me:
The truth:
I was born in Canada, in Sudbury, Ontario. Both of my parents are dyed-in-the-wool franco-canadians from Quebec. My great-great- grandmother was Native (I'm not sure what tribe), which explains my dark hair and skin. I almost never sunburn, even without sunscreen. In pictures of me as a child, with my copper skin and long, straight black hair, I look like a perfect little Indian heathen.
I speak English and French with a fair degree of fluency. I don't speak Italian, although I'd like to. I speak a smidgin of Portuguese, learned thru doing capoeira, and at some point in time I spoke a bit of the Native Montagnais language, although I have forgotten it since.
Another disturbing note on the "you look like ...!" thread: I am often asked if I am the sister of friends that I hang out with often, or people that I am dating. For example, Mestre Juranji, who was visiting our capoeira club last November, asked me upon seeing me, if I was Andrew's sister. I have also been asked if I am Steven's sister (where they got that one, I don't know), and Ian's sister.
When I was a teenager, I was often told that I looked like Cher. The weirdest person I've been told that I look like is Ravi Vakil.